Oliver Pen
I love my Olive Egger pen. I know I keep going on and on about it, but it’s really come together! The star of the pen is King Oliver. This is the egg he hatched out and what he looks like today.
He is very faithful to attend to the needs of his hens, finding them treats and calling them over. And of course, contributing his gorgeous speckling green egg genes to the off-spring.
Because I like a pretty bird as much as I like a pretty egg basket, his hens are all pretty girls. Two Splash Ameracuanas hens and two Whiting True Blues — all blue egg layers — should give us off-spring that carry the genetics for a brighter green egg and maybe with speckles!
This is how blue the Ameraucana eggs are and the Whiting True Blues lay even brighter, with a glossy finish. And look how stinkin’ cute those chicks are!
To get darker green eggs, I’ll cover the next generation of hens with a Wheaten Marans, who will contribute a dark brown gene. My dream Oliver pen will have one of each rooster (an Oliver and a Marans), and hens that lay bright blue or green.
Do note, please that none of these birds are black. It is oh so common to develop Olivers by putting a Black Copper Marans over an Ameraucana and getting a Black chick. Boring! No Black Copper Marans in this line.
Upcoming Hatches
“Hey, I purchased Olive Egger hatching eggs from you and the eggs you gave me are blue?! What’s up with that?” or “Hey, I purchased Olive Egger chicks from you and they grew up and are laying brown or blue eggs. What’s up with that?”
”Thank you for asking. It’s complicated.”
A Wheaten Olive Egger is a hybrid of Wheaten/Blue Wheaten/Splash Ameraucanas and Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Marans who will lay lovely medium to large olive eggs, often with speckles. The birds are lovely and sweet, and can have with muffs, or beards, or feathery legs, or all three!
This is the fun part of curating an Olive Egger Flock: selecting the prettiest eggs to hatch and then selecting the prettiest grow-outs to keep for next year’s flock refresh. Right now I have an Olive Egger Rooster and a Welsummer Rooster (dark brown eggs with spots) covering Bright Blue Egger Hens and Olive Egger Hens.
What makes my Olivers special? The birds I chose to start the flock with.
Olive-colored eggs that is. Today I found this in the nesting box . . .
Olivers eggs lay in all the shades of green, from minty to khaki. And the birds are just as pretty as the eggs!
My friend Kristy sent me this pic of an Olive Egger egg with a blue inside — isn’t it gorgeous? Even better, I was able to order some hatching eggs.